Zotac Unveils 2017 ZBox Magnus SFF Gaming PCs: Powered By Intel Core & AMD Ryzen
by Ryan Smith on June 3, 2017 12:00 PM EST
Besides of course their video cards, Zotac’s other claim to fame is their variety of mini-PCs. For this year’s Computex trade show, the company did not disappoint, with the announcement of a new generation of Magnus gaming mini-PCs.
The big change for the upcoming family of Magnus boxes is that they have been revamped to make room for some of Zotac’s mini-branded video cards, including the GTX 1060 and GTX 1070. Previously, the ZBox Magnus family utilized the mobile versions of NVIDIA’s 10-series GPUs.
The new ZBox Magnus lineup consists of four different models, with two sporting Intel CPUs and two featuring AMD Ryzen processors. The company wasn’t clear on which specific AMD Ryzen chips would be utilized, but it did disclose that they would sport a 65W TDP.
| Zotac ZBox Magnus (2017) Barebones PC | ||||||||
| EK51060 | EK71070 | ER51060 | ER51070 | |||||
| CPU | Intel Core i5-7300HQ | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | AMD Ryzen | AMD Ryzen | ||||
| Video Card | Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini | Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini | Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini | Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Mini | ||||
| Memory | 2x DDR4 SO-DIMM | |||||||
| Storage | 1x M.2 (PCIe & SATA) + 1x 2.5" SATA Bay | |||||||
| Networking | 2x Gigabit Ethernet + 802.11ac |
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| Connectivity | 4 x USB 3.0 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-C 1 x 3.5mm headset 3-in-1 Card Reader |
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Each of the two Intel ZBox Magnus offerings sport different CPUs and GPUs, with the Magnus EK51060 featuring an Intel Core i5-7300HQ and a Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 Mini. The Magnus EK71070 sports an Intel Core i7-7700HQ. Both offer support for Intel Optane memory with an M.2 2242/2260/2280 slot.
Over on the AMD side of the ZBox spectrum, the new Magnus ER51060 features an undisclosed AMD Ryzen CPU and a GTX 1060; the new ER51070 sports a Zotac GTX 1070 Mini. If the naming convention of each model is any indication of the hardware inside (see the Intel models), the CPUs will likely be Ryzen 5 chips.
All of the new ZBox Magnus PCs feature an M.2 slot for PCIe or SATA SSDs, a 2.5” drive bay, and support for up to 32GB (2x16GB) of DDR4-2400 SODIMM memory. There’s also four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 3.1 ports (one Type-A, one Type-C), and a 3-in-1 card reader. Network connectivity is provided by two gigabit Ethernet ports and 802.11ac WiFi. For display output, the new ZBox Magnus PCs sport the same outputs as the GPUs; three DisplayPort 1.4 interfaces, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a DVI-D connector.
Pricing and availability for the new ZBox Magnus mini PCs is still undetermined.
Derek Forrest contributed to this report
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vladx - Monday, June 5, 2017 - link
Lol nice nitpicking, but R5 1600 is also topping 3.6Ghz only and it's known Intel CPUs still have a 15-20% IPC lead vs Ryzen so it's still impossible for the R5 1600 to come close to a 7700HQ's performance.Alexvrb - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
Max all-core turbo on the 7700HQ is 3.4Ghz. The Ryzen 1600 also has two extra cores for newer games that can utilize them. That's not to say that the 7700HQ won't do very well in current games, because it will. But it's certainly not nitpicking.Mugur - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
It's funny how everybody thinks that Intel sells only 7700k cpus... 7700HQ is a notebook cpu (45W) with way less performance than the desktop K variant (and it is also locked):Price: $378
Cores: 4
Threads: 8
Processor Base Frequency: 2.80 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency: 3.80 GHz
Cache: 6 MB
Bus Speed: 8 GT/s DMI3
TDP: 45 W
Configurable TDP-down: 35 W
Any Ryzen 5 will eat it for breakfast.
vladx - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
Nope, Ryzen R5 clocks lower in most cases, not to mention it has a 20% IPC disadvantage as well.Drumsticks - Tuesday, June 6, 2017 - link
20% is way overstated. At best, Skylake and Kaby Lake have an advantage approaching ~10%. Certainly nothing like 20%. That 20% lead can manifest once you factor in the big advantages kaby lake offers in frequency, but that isn't manifesting in mobile parts.Reflex - Wednesday, June 7, 2017 - link
It completely depends on the workload. 20% would be an absolute best case scenario with the least optimized code possible. As pointed out, 10% is more likely in the vast majority of scenarios, and there are a significant number where Ryzen's architecture is superior to Intel's.It's pretty much a wash. Outside of some specific workloads most users are equally well served by either platform currently.
Pompompaihn - Wednesday, June 7, 2017 - link
I have a 7700HQ laptop.It's about as fast as my several year old Haswell i5 3.0ghz desktop.
Ryzen will destroy it in 95% of applications. Don't be a fanboy.